Tsengelmaa Byambadorj (Tsengee) began her training in contortion at the age of nine, and by age twelve was a main act in the Mongolian National Circus. She has won top awards at the Paris and Monte Carlo Circus festivals, and won the Grand Prix award at the Paris variety festival. Tsengee has appeared at top venues in Paris ,Berlin , Bombay, Lake Tahoe, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, & Japan. Tsengee officially retired from performing in 2012 and now coaches full time.
Bob Bozarth sought out Aerial training at Versatile Arts in 2009 as a new way to exercise and has never looked back. Although initially focusing on rope and lyra, aerial straps have been his primary aerial apparatus for the last 6 years. Since joining the Versatile Arts staff in 2016 as an Aerial Straps coach and Conditioning coach Bob has relished the challenge of melding his other life as a Personal Trainer with his Aerial coach existence. This unique skill set allows him to provide students with the highest level of skills coaching, anatomy and physiology awareness, injury prevention and movement efficiency required to reach their Aerial goals. Bob is blessed to have had many exciting performance opportunities as well as to receive training from the highest level of international coaches.
Jenn Bruyer has been immersed in aerial arts since 2008. She is driven by her focus on fabric (silks) and sling (hammock) but also enjoys exploring corde lisse, cloud swing, trapeze, lyra, net and rope & harness. She has coached, choreographed and performed across the US from New York to Alaska. And has recently resettled in Seattle, WA after completing a 5 month 25 city workshop tour.
As an Aerial Coach, she seeks to provide the highest quality progressive instruction to aerialists of all abilities from novice to professional performer. Her mission as a human is to cultivate a warm, non-judgmental learning environment that fosters community, to build personal physical and emotional strength within the individuals who participate in this environment and methodically construct a vehicle by which to create art.
Learn more about her at heelhang.com or follow her on instagram at /heelhang
The Cabiri was founded by Artistic Director John Murphy in Seattle in 1999 and is Seattle’s longest-running contemporary circus company specializing in depiction of stories from mythology and folklore through acrobatic theatre performance. Members of the company have trained with artists and coaches including Elsie & Serenity Smith (NECCA), Robert Davidson (Denver, CO), Fred Deb (France), David Clarkson (Stalker Theatre Co., Australia), Tanya Burka (Cirque du Soleil), Marshall Garfield (Cirque du Soleil, Dragone) and Sam Alvarez (Cavalia, Odysseo). In 2006, the Cabiri began offering weekly aerial dance classes, and has been teaching a variety of aerial arts including hoop, dance trapeze, fabric, and sling continuously for over a decade. In 2018, the Cabiri opened Arcadia, a cultural arts center in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Charly McCreary, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Cabiri, oversees the education programs at Arcadia and will be the primary instructor for the workshops offered at PNW Circus Workshop Weekend. The Cabiri and Arcadia are thrilled to be part of this annual event in 2018 and can’t wait to welcome you into our beautiful new studio.
Gunnar Field has been coaching contortion and handstands for many years. He started his passion for contortion as a teenager after stopping gymnastics, he’s studied circus in Mongolia , China as well as around the US. Gunnar takes his passion for the art of contortion and shares it with students all over the world.
You can find him most days with his army of bendy students.
David Gallina is a Naturopathic medical student at Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington specializing in the combination of movement education and functional neurology. He was recognized as the 2017 Student of the Year by the International Association of Functional Neurology and Rehabilitation, and is scheduled to teach this material at Harvard Medical School. His fascination of circus arts and dance led to his current study and practice of “general human movement” under the Ido Portal Method. He currently teaches movement at Seattle Bouldering Project in addition to his individual movement students.
Molly Graves currently resides in Brattleboro, VT, where she coaches on faculty with the ProTrack Professional Training Program at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA). Molly has performed as a guest artist with Acrobatic Conundrum; at Circus Now’s International
Contemporary Circus Exposure in NY; and at the International Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival in Denver, CO, where she was awarded “Best Technical Performance” for her aerial rope act in 2014. Additionally, she counts herself lucky to be a member of the inspiring & empowering company Girls on Trapeze.
Molly’s teaching credits include the International Rope Meeting at La Central del Circ in Barcelona, Spain; Carolina Aerial & Dance Exchange in Charlotte, NC; Circus Juventas in St. Paul, MN; Canopy Studio in Athens, GA; Vault Festival of Aerial Arts in Houston, TX; and collaborations with Susan Murphy at The Marsh Studio in Darien, GA.
Leah Jones has been dancing- first on the ground and then in the air- for the past eighteen years. As soon as she legally became an adult, she began teaching group exercise classes (and voting, of course!) and soon added personal training and instructing dance to her teaching array. Leah began studying aerial straps about six years ago, and within a few years she was coaching the fundamentals of straps. Now, thanks to years of intensive study on straps with Cirque du Soleil coach Chloe Farah in Montreal and in Las Vegas, and thanks to the incredible knowledge base that is the formidable Versatile Arts staff, Leah has found her groove in coaching straps- that is to say she has merged her knowledge and love of dance technique, exercise science, physics and straps technique with her knowledge and love of motivating people and having spontaneous dance parties. Leah performs as a straps soloist locally and around the country and relishes every day that she gets to hang from her wrists in a bio mechanically impeccable manner.
When Lauren Kehl took her first aerial lesson 2008, she never dreamed that it would turn into a career. 10 years later, she finds herself the Program Coordinator and Youth Program Director at Versatile Arts. Along the way, she spent a year at NECCA in their Intensive Program, and has become a NASM certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Pilates Instructor and is constantly looking for interesting was to further educate herself. Lauren is passionate about teaching people how to connect to their bodies and move, using circus and aerial as a means to that end. She loves teaching recreational adults how to begin to put the pieces of aerial training toghether and is excited to empower her youth and teen students to move and create fearlessly. She also works with people returning to training after injury and childbirth. Her apparatus of choice are trapeze, single point sling, and double loops which she began working with as her solo piece while at NECCA. You can also finding her chasing handstands and struggling on the straps.
Julia Langenberg is an international aerial performer and coach. She is a two-time finalist in the US Aerial Championships and recently returned from coaching aerial fabric in Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Cirque du Soleil contacts Julia several times a year to employ her talents for their shows.
Julia’s aerial career began 12 years ago dancing on the sides of buildings with Blue Lapis Light before landing the principal aerialist role at SeaWorld, where she performed on silks, lyra, trapeze/bungee, and harness over whales and dolphins in the shows “VIVA!” and “Azul.” She toured internationally with JAR Productions, performing acts on silks, lyra, sling, and partner acrobatics. Julia is a graduate of the New England Center for Circus Arts Professional Track program, where she majored in silks and minored in an invented ground apparatus she calls a “ground halo.” In addition to her performing career, Julia built an aerial community in San Antonio, TX, where none existed before.
For more information: www.aerial-horizon.com
Ukoiya Mastin began her professional career in Tokyo performing as an acro duo, aerialist and stilt walker. After working with Love Infusion and Boogie Universal, Ukoiya co-founded U & I Productions and began producing and co-managing Dream Science Circus. Dream Science Circus toured the west coast, Canada and Mexico for 5 years, selling out hundreds of shows. In 2006 Ukoiya toured, with the Body Art Ball as a dancer and acrobat, entertaining audiences all across America. She is currently leading teacher training workshops nationally and internationally for Nimble Arts. As well as coaching at MOTH Contemporary Circus Center and has just recently returned from leading the first act creation workshop in Ireland with Fidget Feet.
Ukoiya is graduate of the Professional Track Training program at the New England Center for Circus Arts. She is certified as a personal trainer through I.S.S.A, TRX trainer and a certified Aerial Yoga instructor. When Ukoiya isn’t performing or teaching she is designing and fabricating custom costumes, enjoying outdoor time in Denver CO, playing with her cats and travel.
PJ Perry has been a multi-disciplinary aerialist since 2008, specializing in corde lisse since2013. She loves the simplicity of this apparatus and thrives on chasing momentum. She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington, and coaches rope and handstands at Versatile Arts in Seattle. Her background is in biomechanics and kinesiology. When she is not in the air, she teaches collegiate courses in kinesiology and coaches movement re-education sessions to older adults as a master Pilates instructor.
PJ has performed with the Aerialistas, Bellingham Circus Guild, the Dream Science Circus, Moisture Festival, Apogee Aerial Dance Festival, Southern Fried Circus Festival, Vashon Open Air Festival, Denver Aerial Arts Festival, Vancouver Circus Festival and in Stuttgart, Germany, at the Friedrichsbau Variete. She recently returned from performing at the Western Australian Circus Festival where her duo and solo work was featured, in addition to her coaching rope at the Lunar Circus Summer school.
Xochitl Sosa is an Oakland based aerial performer and instructor. She is a graduate of the New England Center for Circus Arts’ (NECCA) Pro-Track Program, with a concentration in dance and duo trapeze. In addition to NECCA, she has trained in Montreal with renowned coaches from Cirque du Soleil and the National Circus School. She performs her unique style of dance trapeze around the world in festivals, cabarets, and most recently on a national tour with contemporary circus company, Acrobatic Conundrum. Her unique latin aerial style has been internationally recognized. Xochitl has contributed to the evolution of American circus by helping to establish Sky Candy, an aerial school in Austin, Texas. She is an enthusiastic teacher; selected teaching experiences include: Kinetic Arts (Oakland, CA); San Francisco Circus Center (San Francisco, CA); the North American Circus Educators Conference. She teaches aspiring aerialists around the world.
Anna Thomas-Henry Anna is a multi-disciplinary performer who has performed and
toured in circus, dance, and musical theater all across the country. These days her specialties are aerial fabric and aerial net. Her innovative work on fabric has awarded her first place at the 2015 U.S. Aerial Championships as well as placement as a finalist in the 2015 Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival in Denver. Anna frequently collaborates as an entertainer with special events companies and performs her own work with The Acrobatic Conundrum.
As a coach Anna has worked with students ranging from youth to full time professionals in the air and on the ground. She served as the Principal Aerial Coach at the P3 Program of SANCA Seattle, recently completed the first Artist in Residence position at Body & Pole NYC and often tours giving her workshops.
Training includes: SANCA Seattle’s Professional Preparatory Program (aerial fabric & hand balance), Circus Warehouse Pro Program (aerial generalist), The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (musical theater & dance), and The Shanghai Conservatory of Music (voice). Favorite mentors include Adam Woolley (aerial fabric), Chloe Farah (aerial net) and Yury Bozyan (hand balance).
When she’s not touring to perform and teach workshops you can find Anna in her current home of Brooklyn.
Kim Zmolek began her aerial training at Versatile Arts in 2012 and fell head-over-heels in love with aerial arts. Having devoted her life and career to movement, Kim teaches aerial at VA as well as Pilates at Vitality Pilates. She embraces being challenged physically and mentally by each new skill, and and loves the reward of making a movement pathway more precise.
She is known for dynamic aerial beats and drops and for spinning REALLY fast! She performs on Rope, Fabric, Spanish Web, Slings & Swings and is half of aerial duo TSA (Top Shelf Aerial), collaborating with partner Rebekah Bastian. While she remains the last person not on social media, you can follow her aerial endeavors at http://aerialbandits.com/kim/
Emily Scherb Dr. Emily Scherb, PT, DPT is the author of the upcoming book Applied Anatomy of Aerial Arts. She is a Doctor of Physical Therapy specializing the in the care, treatment, and education of circus artists and the medical professionals who work with them. Emily has been involved in the circus community for over twenty-five years and never turns down an opportunity to get up in the air. www.PureMotionPhysicalTherapy.
